A Little While
by brizamartian
Summary: Sometimes a little while, a small break, a few breaths, is all you need. Kagami's "little while" manifests itself in the form of nightly basketball games with Aomine, followed typically by dinner and maybe some arguing. But as their "little whiles" grow longer and more intimate, they're forced to confront the fact they may just be using each other to keep away the pain...
1. Warm and Uncomfortable

**A/N:** Hey y'all. Haven't written a fic in forever. Started this one at the airport on my way to college. Looked it over again today and realized it isn't so bad, so I thought "Hey, I'll post it, why the hell not?" Already got the second chapter halfway done. I'll try to get these chapters out in a timely manner. I'm really impatient sometimes so chapters might not always be particularly long, but I'll do my best to write the longest chapters I can muster. Warnings: yeah, this'll get smutty in due time. The beginning is mostly...stirrings...but it'll get hot and heavy at some point and then a little angst-y and then maybe fluffy? We'll see. Also, language. Probably some references to other pairings. Or, naw. Enjoy!

* * *

Push the door, I'm home at last and I'm soaking through and  
through

then you handed me a towel and all I see is you  
and even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue  
because you're near me and

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life  
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life

\- Dido, _Thank You_

* * *

"Hey! _Baka_gami," a voice calls from the court.

Kagami turns, frowning deeply at the blue haired asshole known as Aomine Daiki, or as he likes to call him "_Aho_mine."

"What?!" he shouts back.

"I'm bored. Play with me."

"You sound like a three year old, _Aho_mine."

Aomine flicks off the redhead, but he doesn't seem particularly angry. "Come play with me," he repeats.

Kagami breaths out sharply through his nose. He wants to say no. He really, _really _wants to say no, but…"Yeah, ok fine. For a little while." He just can't resist. It's the beginning of winter and he's currently freezing his ass off and going no where in particular so there's really no reason to refuse.

Aomine throws him the ball. It's warm from Aomine's hands. "Gross. How are your hands so warm?" Kagami yells, dribbling quickly to avoid the residual heat on the ball.

"I've been playing for a while." He responds, shifting into place in front of Kagami, ready to defend.

"Alone?"

"Yeah." He makes a face. "People don't want to play with me."

Kagami tries to get around him while he's talking but he knows Aomine is too good to be distracted. They could have a whole conversation and still maintain focus on their game. "Yeah. No shit."

He dribbles left; Aomine gracefully steps into place in front of him, defense currently impenetrable. For someone so massive he moves like a fucking ballerina when he wants to. "What's that supposed to mean?" Aomine demands, or not demands, more questions with only mild interest.

"You're scary as hell," Kagami responds flatly. "Maybe if you'd stop making that face…"

"What face?"

Kagami turns around and shoots. He misses. Aomine takes possession of the ball. Kagami starts thinking about how warm Aomine's hands must be and the shudders internally because he actually _thought _that. He feels like he needs to wash his brain or something. "That one. The one your making now."

"This is just my face," Aomine says, looking slightly puzzled.

"Yeah, I know."

Aomine frowns. Kagami grins at him and "a little while" somehow turns to hours.

They've both shucked their jackets, sweaty and hot despite the cold weather. Neither one seems ready to give up until Kagami stomach growls rather insistently.

Aomine looks genuinely startled by the sound. "What the shit? Sounds like you ate a tiger."

Kagami turns red. "Fuck you. I'm hungry."

"Yeah, I can hear that. Let's get some food."

Kagami wants to tell him that while he _does _want to eat food, and lots of it, he doesn't want to do it with Aomine, but his stomach growls again and he realizes that's not entirely true anyway so he says, "Where to?"

They end up in an ice cream parlor and Kagami looks at Aomine like he's more insane than usual. "Um, it's winter," Kagami feels the need to point out.

"Yeah."

"It's cold out."

"Yeah."

"Why the fuck are we in an ice cream parlor?"

"I'm hot. I want ice cream," Aomine explains.

Kagami's stomach growls again, even louder this time. Aomine looks like he wants to laugh but he shakes his head and keeps it in. "Look, this is the best damn ice cream joint and I want ice cream and they have hot fudge sundaes."

"What was that?" Kagami's mouth waters at the prospect.

"Hot. Fudge. Sundaes."

"Yeah, ok, I'm down."

They walk up to the girl at the counter and immediately have all of her attention. She visibly shifts into flirt mode, though she seems unable to decide which one of them she actually wants to flirt with, not doubt overwhelmed by the amount of tall handsome basketball player in the shop."What can I do for _you two?"_

"Two hot fudge sundaes," Aomine orders for them.

"Actually they're pretty big. People usually split them."

Kagami smiles in a way he assumes is charming. Aomine nearly chokes with laughter at the attempt. "Don't worry. We can finish them. In fact I think I'll have two."

"Two?!" the girl looks shocked. Aomine looks vaguely impressed. If the volume of his stomach growls are any indication of how much he can eat, he doesn't doubt Kagami could finish two, if not three, on his own. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," he grins. The girl blushes bright red.

"C-coming right up," she stutters, obviously set a-fluster by his smile. Aomine fakes throwing up and Kagami smacks him on the arm.

She produces three of the most amazing looking things Kagami has ever seen. He feels himself tear up. He grabs his and all but sprints to the nearest table, two spoons in hand. Aomine rolls his eyes and pays for all of them. "Thanks," he says to the girl, cracking a subtle smile. The girl blushes even redder.

"Yo-you're welcome." Aomine's only regret is that Kagami doesn't get to see her reaction. Maybe he really should stop making _that _face and smile more. It seems to work.

Kagami is already pigging out on an incredible scale, shoveling spoonful after spoonful of ice cream and fudge into his mouth.

"I thought you were cold, Bakagami."

"I wanna eat it before the ice cream melts too much. Tastes better that way," Or at least that's what Aomine thinks he says. His mouth is very, very full at the moment.

"Manners," Aomine chides sarcastically.

Kagami pauses only long enough to mumble something that sounds a little like "fuck you," but Aomine can't be sure.

Kagami is finished with both of his before Aomine is done with his one. He pats his stomach, feeling extremely satisfied. "Ok, so…I take it back. Great idea on your part."

"What _are_ you?" Aomine asks.

"Heh?"

"You can't be human."

"Look whose talking you giant monkey!"

"'You giant monkey?' That's the best you can do?"

Kagami frowns. "Hey…shut up."

Aomine rolls his eyes but he really wants to laugh. Kagami really is dumb, but he's dumb in a really amusing kind of way. Aomine almost likes having him around. It takes him a while to notice that he's being stared at. "What the fuck are you looking at?" he glares a Kagami.

It takes Kagami a second longer to realize he was staring…but…Aomine was…smiling just a second ago. He almost couldn't believe his eyes. He looked different when he smiled. _Better. _"Nothing! I wasn't staring at you. I was just thinking and happened to be looking in your direction," he lies, trying to cool the heat rising in his face.

"I didn't know you could think," Aomine replies and then he smiles again and Kagami scrapes the inside of his empty bowl to disguise his distress. Aomine has a nice smile. Like a _really _nice one. Nice enough that it makes Kagami uncomfortable.

"You're an asshole, Ahomine," Kagami says like he's reminding himself that that's the case.

"Right back at you," Aomine responds cooly, casually eating the rest of his sundae. Kagami tries very hard to avoid looking directly at Aomine's face until he's finishes for fear of noticing something else he likes about it.

"So, um…oh!" Kagami reaches into his pocket, suddenly remembering that Aomine paid for his sundae. "Here."

Aomine glances at the money for a second or two before waving it away. "Whatever."

"Whatever?"

"Yeah. I'm not broke, you know."

Kagami frowns. "I never said you were."

"So, I don't need your money."

"Fine! Whatever! Jeez, you're such a dick."

Aomine shrugs. "You wanna play again tomorrow?"

Kagami is stunned. Aomine just stares at him. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No."

"I don't get you."

"Ok. So we gonna play or not?"

"I…Fine. Ok."

Aomine gets up. "See you tomorrow." And then he leaves and Kagami doesn't even know what to do. First the smile, then the paying for his ice cream, then the promise of a repeat. It was weird and made no sense. He and Aomine were rivals, right? So why did they feel so much like friends just now?

* * *

It's another cold day but they warm up _rea_l fast. Time feels short between them. Hours slip by like minutes and before long Kagami's stomach is roaring for food. Aomine smiles. Again. The smiling thing is really not good for Kagami. At all. He wishes he would just stop and go back to being scary again. Something about the contrast between his dark skin and his white teeth is extremely pleasant to look at, but it's more than that. His eyes light up. The frown lines on his forehead disappear and he looks like a nice guy. As long as Kagami keeps reminding himself that Aomine is not, in fact, a nice guy, everything should be fine.

"Let _me _pick the place today," Kagami says.

"I thought you liked the ice cream place?" Aomine responds and Kagami could almost swear he sounds disappointed.

"I did! I loved it," he says way too quickly. Woah, what the hell is wrong with him? "I just…wanna go somewhere else today."

Aomine shrugs. "Whatever."

"A burger place. Shocker."

"Not just any burger place. _The _burger place."

Aomine shrugs.

"Wait here. I'll order," Kagami says, walking away before Aomine can argue.

"Baka," Aomine mutters and he reluctantly sits and waits for whatever it is Kagami's ordering. A few minutes later Kagami places what is perhaps the largest burger Aomine has ever seen in front of him. "What the fuck is this?"

"A monster burger."

"Fuck. This doesn't exist."

"It does and it's the best thing ever. Take a bite."

"Stop telling me what to do," Aomine says even as he takes the massive burger into his hands. He takes a bite and is completely powerless to stop the sigh of pure ecstasy that escapes his mouth. "My mouth just orgasmed," he admits.

Kagami isn't listening. He's too busy shoving what remains of his burger - his _second _burger - down his throat.

"That's disgusting," Aomine says, already going for another large bite.

"_You're _disgusting," Kagami retorts.

"You're an idiot."

"Don't call me names."

"Don't be an idiot and I won't call you an idiot."

"That's stupid."

"_You're _stupid." But Aomine is smiling again. _At _him this time. Like they really are friends. Kagami starts feeling really warm and uncomfortable again, which basically sums up how he's starting to feel around him. Warm and uncomfortable…

"Hey, thanks Bakagami. That was awesome."

"No problem."

"I've got to get home," Aomine says, getting up.

"You live far?" Kagami immediately realizes that they aren't really friends. He has no idea where Aomine lives or really anything else all that useful about him. He just knows that he's a dick who likes basketball.

"Kinda. I've gotta take the train."

"Oh, ok."

"What about you?" Aomine asks as they walk out the door.

"I'm close…my house is just past the train station actually…"

"Oh…so we're walking in the same direction."

"Yeah…" An awkward silence ensues, one Kagami is determined to push through. "So…are you and that pink haired chick dating or whatever?" That comes out wrong. He doesn't know why he asks that. If he could, he'd kick himself.

"Nah. She's not really my type."

"She's smokin' hot and has large breasts, how is that not your type?" Kagami asks incredulously.

"She's…annoying. Like a sister."

"Ah."

"Yeah." Aomine looks sideways at Kagami. "You want her?"

"What?! No." Kagami blushes. He hadn't meant it like that. He wasn't sure how he meant it, really.

"She'd probably be into you," Aomine states.

"…Really?"

"Yeah." Aomine smirks. "Because you're just like me."

"So she's into you?"

"Yeah. Won't admit it though. Says she's in love with Kuroko."

"Yeah, I remember."

Aomine waves a hand. "Whatever. She's weird."

"You say whatever a lot," Kagami points out.

"You eat food a lot," Aomine answers.

They make it to the train station before Kagami can come up with a suitable retort.

"I think I missed the last train. Gotta wait. What a pain," Aomine sighs.

"You sigh a lot," Kagami tells him.

Aomine quirks an eyebrow at him. "You state the obvious a lot."

"You use short sentences."

"Talking is a pain. You say stupid shit a lot."

"You annoy me a lot."

"Yeah. Ditto."

They're quiet for a while. They sit down on the bench, waiting for the next train. "You don't have to wait with me," Aomine tells him.

"Ive got nothing better to do. Why do you think I've been hanging with you?"

Aomine shurgs. "Where's Kuroko?"

"Out of town, I think."

"Don't you have other friends?"

"Don't you?"

Aomine is silent. "So…tomorrow then?" Aomine asks in a tone as timid as Kagami has ever heard it.

"Yeah. Definitely."

"Ok."

The train arrives and Kagami is almost disappointed to see it come.

"Bye. Bakagami."

"See ya, Ahomine."

Aomine smiles at him. _Again. _And Kagami takes a sharp intake of breath that he's sure Aomine must hear, but he's already halfway in the train.

Kagami walks home by himself. Wishing he were with Aomine then groaning at the fact. They really were becoming friends and maybe it could be cool. Cool. So why was did he feel so warm?

* * *

**E/N: **So hoped you liked it. Please please please review. I luuuurve reviews. Will post the next chapter soon hopefully. I do kinda know where this is going thankfully, so hopefully updates won't take too long. Yeah, stay tuned. P.s. aren't these idiots adorable? I just love these fucking idiots and their cute nicknames and obliviousness.


	2. Rain

Taxi driver  
Be my shrink for the hour  
Leave the meter running  
It's rush hour  
So take the streets if you wanna  
Just outrun the demons, could you?

\- Frank Ocean, _Bad Religion_

* * *

The next day is colder than the day before, and much wetter too. It's not quite cold enough to snow though, so it just sort of lightly mists freezing rain, not that Kagami or Aomine mind terribly. In fact, it keeps them cooler longer, letting them play until Kagami is very sure there are blisters forming on his feet and he's practically _dying_ of hunger.

He's not quite sure why he's throwing himself so completely into these little sessions with Aomine, but it's probably got something to do with all the things he doesn't feel like thinking about. Things like college and a future are starting to work their way into his mind and he really doesn't feel like worrying about any of that yet. He really doesn't feel like worrying about anything, but thoughts keep creeping into his head whenever he isn't distracted, and the lack of school and formal tournaments or training right now has increased his free time (and by extension, his worry time) significantly. So he's thinking of these hours with Aomine as his therapy; his way out of the worry. He isn't quite sure what Aomine is doing it for, though. He assumes he's just bored.

"I'm hungry," Kagami says. "And it's starting to rain harder."

"Yeah it is."

"Where do you wanna go this time?"

"I've heard a rumor…" Aomine states.

"Um…that's random."

"No, it's about you and food."

"I didn't eat Kuroko's dog! I swear it's not true!" Kagami yells.

"…No. That's not it."

"Oh." Kagami looks away, embarrassed by his outburst. But seriously, once when Number 2 went missing everyone looked right at Kagami, knowing his fear of dogs and seemingly insatiable appetite, and asked him if he'd eaten him for lunch. They still eye him every time Number 2 isn't around. "Well, what then?"

"I've heard you can cook."

"…Oh, that."

"So can you?"

"Yes." Kagami doesn't bother hiding it or being modest about it. He knows he's only really good at three things: basketball, eating food, and making food. He doesn't think admitting that makes him vain.

Aomine is silent. He appears to be thinking something over. "…Well, I'm not in the mood to spend money right now. You should make me something," he says bluntly.

"I thought you said you weren't broke?" Kagami says, remembering their argument from a couple of days ago.

"I'm not. I just don't feel like spending money on food right now."

Kagami mulls it over. He'd have to take Aomine to his apartment, which would mean that Aomine would know where he lived. And then he'd actually have to _have _Aomine _in _his apartment, which just felt…weird. But not justifiably so…"Yeah. Ok, fine."

Aomine grins. _He absolutely _has _to stop that, _Kagami thinks to himself. "Cool. Lead the way."

Kagami's apartment seems way too large for just one person, but it becomes instantly cozy once they're both occupying the space.

"Nice digs, man."

"Thanks."

"This place is fucking huge."

Kagami shrugs, making his way to the fridge. "I guess. Hey, want some hot chocolate? It's from Mexico. I got it while I was in America. It's amazing."

"Yeah, thanks."

Kagami starts moving around the kitchen and Aomine watches him. He doesn't mean to watch him, but he makes no effort _not_ to watch him either. He's kinda graceful, in a weird way, and he seems to know where everything is, so he starts taking out ingredients and tools and pots and pans without really paying much attention. It's like cooking is as much of a reflex for him as basketball, but it's fascinating to watch because, while Aomine understands basketball just fine, he doesn't understand cooking in the least, so the way Kagami moves around the kitchen is kind of mesmerizing.

He gets out the hot chocolate and some other spices then pours some milk in a saucepan, then with his other hand he starts taking knives out of drawers. When he's done with the milk he leans over and pulls some things from the freezer, his other hand occupied again with pulling bowls from the cabinets. It's like a sort of intricate dance, as Kagami is more than able to use both hands effectively at once. His hands are quite capable…and long. He has really long fingers. The ways he grasps onto different things…

_What?_

Aomine hadn't realized he'd devoted his attention solely to how Kagami's fingers look on various objects. The way they wrap around things or grasp them…

_Stop._

The milk boils and Kagami turns the stovetop off without looking. He instead focuses on pulling mugs from the top shelf of the cabinet. He grabs onto both of them at once, holding each with just two fingers in a rather precarious grip. It's amazing he can hang onto both of them so easily. He has a strong grip…

_Stop that._

He pours the milk into the mugs and mixes in the hot chocolate and something that looks like cinnamon and then some cream. He tops them off with marshmallows and whipped cream. Kagami sure knows how to eat.

Kagami walks over and hands Aomine a mug. "Thanks. Looks awesome."

"Tastes better," he says with a smirk, sipping his hot chocolate before setting it down again to start chopping carrots. He turns briefly to pull another cutting board out from the drawer behind him and Aomine sees he's got whipped cream on his top lip.

Aomine smirks and briefly imagines what kind of face Kagami would make if he were to walk up to him right now and lick the whipped cream off, nice and slow, and maybe get some on his fingers just so he could stick them in Kagami's mouth so he'd lick it off and…

Aomine chokes slightly on his hot chocolate. He honestly hadn't meant for that particular fantasy to get to that particular place. He went from thinking about how amusing it would be just to freak Kagami out to thinking about the way Kagami's tongue would feel on his…

He chokes yet again. Kagami hears him this time. He kinda laughs. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Fucking marshmallows."

Kagami just hums in his throat and goes back to chopping.

Ok, then, no more thoughts about Kagami's hands, lips, or tongue from now on. Those topics are entirely off limits forever and ever, because obviously Aomine can't handle those properly. He doesn't even know why. He's usually good about fantasizing about what he wants and then leaving it alone. He's not the most overtly sexual person, in that he doesn't sit around thinking about sex all the time. In fact, his sexual thoughts are always fleeting at best, he's more focused on other things, namely basketball. That, and the fact that he's often too lazy to fantasize. When he sleeps he doesn't dream much. But that…that just got away from him so fast he didn't even realize it was happening. It was really weird too. Wrong. Gay. And incredibly hot.

_Goddammit, what a pain…_

* * *

Kagami starts setting dishes on the table. Lots of them. All of them steaming hot and smelling like heaven.

"What is all this?" Aomine asks, licking his lips.

Kagami doesn't answer at first. Aomine looks up, and finds Kagami staring in his direction distractedly. "What?" he mumbles.

Aomine rolls his eyes. "What'd you make?"

"Oh. Chicken curry, rice, salmon rolls, steamed vegetables, and rice pudding for desert. I didn't really know what you wanted so I just made a bunch of stuff."

"Looks great."

"…Really?"

"Uh, yeah. Like really great."

Kagami grins triumphantly. "Well, cool. Go for it."

Aomine grins at Kagami's stupid, fucking adorable grin…WHAT THE FUCK? Adorable? Where'd that come from? Aomine shakes his head as he busies himself with heaping food onto his plate. It really does look and smell amazing. He picks up a salmon roll and stuffs it into his mouth. It's perfect. The rice is perfect and the wrap is perfect and the salmon's perfect and it taste faintly of ginger. "Kagami?"

Kagami's shoveling curry into his mouth at the moment. "Hmm?"

"This. Is. Fan-fucking-tastic."

Kagami does that stupid grin thing again, as Aomine knew he would. He seems to do it when he gets a compliment. It's like an involuntary little grin-blush-scratch-the-back-of-his-head thing. Aomine figures it's just cute because it makes Kagami look about five and little kids are supposed to be cute. It's got nothing at all to do with the fact that Kagami is cute. Because…wait…Kagami is cute. "Well…glad you like it," Kagami says kinda sheepishly.

Aomine goes back to eating because anything to do with Kagami right now is not safe. What is wrong with him? Where's all this coming from? It must be the stress. Things at home…aren't going so well, but Kagami is so far removed from that situation that being around him is like…forgetting. He forgets everything and it's just Kagami being a stupid, adorable idiot and that doesn't hurt so bad. Maybe it's just that. He latching onto things that he wouldn't normally latch onto and it's making him think weird shit. That's gotta be it…

* * *

"Ugh. So full," Aomine groans, patting his stomach. He's laying on the couch, feet hanging off the ends, one arm flung over his face, looking like he's about to fall asleep.

"Good," Kagami grunts from his armchair. He's staring out the window. It's raining harder, but Kagami kinda likes it. "I was afraid I hadn't made enough."

"For you maybe. I can't even believe how much you eat."

Kagami shrugs, though Aomine obviously can't see it. "Rain's nice," Kagami mumbles.

Aomine peaks out from under his arm. "You like the rain?"

"Yeah, I guess," Kagami says. Truth is, he _really _likes the rain. He's not sure why, he just always enjoys the feeling. "I always get really sleepy when it rains. I end up nodding off. Doesn't matter where I am. Class, home, out, whatever. I just get tired.

Aomine laughs. "That's weird. Maybe it's some kind of weird medical condition. What's it called when you fall asleep randomly?"

Kagami is too tired to think. "I don't know," he mumbles. "Something with an 'n'?"

"Narcolepsy! You've got rain narcolepsy."

Even though it's not that funny, Kagami is unable to stop the laugh from coming out of his throat. "That's so dumb," he tells Aomine. He finds himself rather easily amused at the moment.

Aomine smirks at him. "It's not dumb. It's true."

Kagami laughs again. "You're dumb."

"I don't like the rain," Aomine says quietly. So quiet, Kagami isn't sure he's supposed to hear it. He feels he shouldn't ask, but…

"Why?"

Aomine is silent for a bit. "Bad memories, I guess." Kagami can tell he's feigning nonchalance. He doesn't push, but then Aomine says, "Well at least now when I think about rain, I'll just think about you falling asleep." He chuckles. "Rain narcolepsy. It's hilarious."

Kagami isn't sure why, but he blushes at the thought of Aomine thinking about him every time it rains. And then he smiles. And can't stop smiling. "Well, good."

Aomine hides his face under his arm again before mumbling "I should probably get home," rather grudgingly.

"It's not that late," Kagami says, "It's only five."

"Yeah, I know, but I really should get home before…" He trails off.

"Before what?"

"My dad gets home."

"Oh…" the phrase is innocent enough but it sounds unusually weighty. Kagami decides not to pry this time. "Ok."

He gets up and Aomine grabs his stuff. Kagami walks him to the door, really wishing he didn't have to leave yet. He hadn't realized how empty his place felt until Aomine was in it, filling the space. Suddenly it was cozy and warm, and with the rain pattering down, all Kagami wants to do was curl up and sleep until tomorrow. He actually kinda wants to curl up on the couch. With Aomine on it. All warm and _there_. God, that would be so unbelievably nice it wasn't even fair. He knew he should probably feel guilty, or embarrassed or something for thinking that, but all he felt was painful sadness at the thought of _not _ever doing that. And he knew he couldn't ever do something like that. He heart sunk and he must have let show on his face because Aomine pauses and asks "You ok?"

Kagami looks up, startled. "Oh, yeah." His lie doesn't come out even close to right. It sounds so pathetic. He feels pretty pathetic actually.

Aomine just looks at him. "Uh, no," he says. "You're not."

Kagami shouldn't have been surprised that he called him. Most people would just drop it. You lie and say you're fine all the time and people just pretend like they can't see it, but Aomine is pretty blunt, and kinda doesn't give any shits. Kagami actually smiles. "Ok, no I'm not, but it's not important."

Aomine shrugs. "Fine." He turns to go, but then stops again. "Tomorrow?" he asks.

"Yeah, of course."

Aomine smiles over his shoulder and then walks down the hall, turns the corner, and is gone. Kagami closes the door very slowly, then he stands there for a while trying to figure out how to deal with the pain in his chest. It's been coming more and more lately and he isn't sure what it is or why it won't leave him alone…Or he should say, why it only leaves him alone when Aomine is around.

He breaths out every bit of air in his lungs, holding out on breathing as long as he can. After a few seconds he's forced to suck in a big gulp of air.

I didn't work. It didn't kill the pain. It's still there, just as bad. He turns around and looks at his empty apartment and wants to go lay on the couch and sleep and then possibly not wake up…

* * *

The train station is close, so he'll probably make it home before his dad gets there. He'd never forgive himself it he wasn't there and…

The train shows up right as he does and he silently thanks…something…god maybe. He sits on the train, chin in hand, watching the rain and thinking about Kagami sleeping then cursing at himself for doing that. But he kinda wonders how Kagami looks when he's asleep. Adorable as hell probably. Actually, he's sure of it and he'd do anything to see that. He'd also do anything to forget he thought that. _And_ he'd do anything to not have to go home right now. To not have to be there.

He feels his muscles tighten. His neck tenses as it does whenever he goes home each night. And the tension didn't let up until his dad is gone in the morning. Maybe that's why he needs to play basketball with Kagami so bad. He's tense as hell all the time. The basketball loosens him up.

He snorts at the thought. _If only that were the only reason._

The train ride seems to take forever (as always) and the walk home seems to take forever (as always) and it seems like it takes forever to find his keys (as always) and finally (_finally_) he's inside and he calls out to his mom. "Mom, I'm home."

She peaks out from around the kitchen door. "Oh. Good. Hi, sweety." She sounds relieved.

"Hi mom." Aomine goes into the kitchen and sits down at the table. He _feels _relieved.

"I'm almost done with dinner," she says, stirring things and tasting things and sprinkling things. Aomine thinks instantly of Kagami…_this is getting out of hand. _

"Not hunger. I already ate."

His mother looks surprised. "Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"Sweety," she clucks disapprovingly, "You can't just eat junk food and ice cream all the time. You need a nice, home cooked meal every now and again, you know."

"I did have a nice home cooked meal," he replies rather defensively.

His mom raises an eyebrow at him, clearly not buying it. "And how did you manage that."

"Friend of mine cooks," he tells her, knowing she'll start asking questions. He _really _doesn't want that. He's actually mildly afraid he'll say something dumb about Kagami that he really needs to keep to himself.

"Oh, really? What friend? _Girl _friend?" His mom looks painfully hopeful.

Aomine has to look away. "No. Kagami. He's…a basketball friend." Aomine kinda cringes at that designation. He's something else, but Aomine doesn't have words for it. His escape maybe?

"Oh. On your team?"

"No. Seirin."

"Isn't that the same team as Kuroko?"

"Yeah."

His mom looks at him. He looks back at her dark skin, tired brown eyes and those same frown lines he's got. People always say, aside from the eyes, he looks a hell of a lot like his mother. She feigns shock. "You're hanging out with someone from a rival team?!"

Aomine rolls his eyes, but he can't contain his smile. He likes to see his mother joking and smiling like she used to. "Yeah, I know. Weird. He's…" Aomine then realizes he has no idea what to say about him that would make sense to anyone other than himself, or would sound even remotely heterosexual. He honestly has _nothing _heterosexual to say. God. Dammit. How did that even happen?

"He's what?" His mother presses. She's got a very slight smirk on her face, the same one Aomine often wears, and he feels caught. Mothers are scarily observant

"Uh."

"Uh?"

"Well, he's great in the kitchen." Woah. He'd meant to say "He's a great cook," because that sounded pretty harmless, but "he's great in the kitchen" sounded slightly less harmless if you looked at it a certain way. Maybe he was just bering paranoid, and she wouldn't think anything of it, but he did happen to know exactly what he was thinking about when he said it. He just hopes his mom doesn't know that.

The smirk stays firmly in place. "Oh really? Well you have to introduce me sometime. Maybe this weekend?"

"Yeah, maybe. I'll ask." _No, no, no, no, _he chants to himself. He doesn't want to occupy the same space as his mother _and_ Kagami. It makes him feel…really, _really _weird. And it shouldn't. At all. Maybe he just needs to work through his shit first. It's thursday so he has at least a couple days to do that. He needs to stop with the Kagami gay shit. It's dumb and stupid and…it absolutely has to stop. Should be fine. He can do that.

Just then, he hears keys in the door. He practically _sees_ his mother stiffen. "Your father's home," she says quietly.

Aomine gets up and puts his hands on her shoulders saying "It's fine," before walking out to "greet" his dad. He realizes then that the whole stop-thinking-weirdly-gay-thoughts-about-Kagami thing was going to be much harder then he thought because the first thing he thinks of as he makes his way to the entry hall is how badly he wishes Kagami was there to put his hands on his shoulders and whisper "It's fine," and then everything would be fine…

* * *

**E/N: **So...uh...sorry about all the angst? There's more to come too so hope y'all don't mind angst. But there's love-y stuff too as you can tell so it's all good. Yeah, I can't wait to write about Kagami meeting Aomine's mom. I based her off of my mom so she's really fun for me to write. You might be able tell what's going on with them at this point. Or Aomine at least. It's kinda interesting exploring their emotional problems, and I always love romances that come out of pain (because I'm an evil bitch). Disagree? Well you'll have to let me know in a review! And follow? Pretty please?


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